Yerevan/Mediamax/. Leader of Yesh Atid Party, former Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said "we need to recognize the Armenian genocide”.

“Now we have to run our own policy: From now on we support the establishment of an independent Kurdish state; we need to recognize the Armenian genocide; we need to do all the things that we didn’t do when we had good relations with Turkey – because we don’t – and we will not have in the future,” Jerusalem Post quoted Yair Lapid as saying.

“Turkey needs to know they cannot continue to kick Israel, and Israel will come back and ask for more”, Yair Lapid stressed.

In 2013, Yesh Atid, founded by Yair Lapid, placed second in the general election, winning 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. It then entered into a coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

In the 2015 election, the party refused to back Netanyahu and joined the opposition after suffering a significant setback in the polls.

In September 2016 Israeli Knesset Deputy Speaker Tali Ploskov said in an interview with Mediamax that “today Israel does not have the opportunity to recognize Armenian Genocide on state level”.

In August 2011 Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in an interview with Mediamax that “Israel has never denied the Armenian tragedy, but we do not wish to become party to the confrontation between Turkey and Armenian on this important issue”.